Raising a desert’s low profile

BY GREG MCKULICK
SPECIAL TO THE CHIEFTAIN

Published: July 30, 2013;Last modified: August 11, 2013 09:33PM

We literally felt the dry heat sucking moisture from our bodies. The only life forms willing to smile at the brutal sun were abundant lemon-yellow prickly-pear cactus blossoms. Everything else wilted under the heat’s unyielding intensity, including us. How had Kathy and I, rational folks in our mid-60s, found ourselves hiking in mid-June, over 20 miles south of La Junta in Southeastern Colorado’s unforgiving desert?

Depending on perspective, we are both the beneficiaries and victims of my insatiable curiosity. For better or worse, I leave no stone unturned to find obscure and intriguing hiking destinations. After purchasing David Covill’s and John Drew Mitchler’s “Hiking Colorado’s Summits, A Guide to Exploring the County Highpoints” several years ago, I thumbed through its pages, pigeonholing in my memory several future hiking destinations: 4,855-foot San Jose Ranch Mesa, the highpoint of Bent County, was one such place.

Indeed, although this little known mesa is more than 9,500 feet lower than Colorado’s highest summit (14,433 foot Mount Elbert), the authors include it among their 10 (out of 64) favorite county highpoints. As this is not a long hike, I realized that by itself, it would not be worth our gas and time expenditure. For me, this hike had to be combined with another destination and purpose.